Two recent vicious animal cases settled in Minot Municipal Court had very different outcomes, and price tags.

This week a Minot woman was found guilty in Municipal Court on a vicious animal charge stemming from a Jan. 29, 2020 incident in southwest Minot. According to an affidavit filed by Minot Police, the woman’s dog nipped a man on the outside of his left knee. The bite occurred when the woman was walking her dog down a hallway of an apartment building on her way outside and the victim was approaching in the same hallway.

The dog lunged at the victim and, according to police, “did not bit down hard, but hard enough to break skin.” The dog owner was fined $125 and the court ordered that her dog “be leashed in a manner so as to prevent contact with any passersby and to be muzzled when out of the residence.”

Another recent vicious animal case in the city had a very different and expensive outcome. It had its beginnings on October 7, 2019 when a police department animal control officer responded to the Trinity Hospital emergency room for a report of a dog bite and observed several puncture wounds on the victim.

According to an affidavit filed with the court, the dog left the owner’s property and bit a neighbor who was mowing his lawn. Further investigation showed the dog had not been vaccinated for rabies. The man who was bitten informed the animal control officer that he would be starting a rabies vaccination series as soon as possible.

At a January 28, 2020 appearance in Municipal Court the dog’s owner pled guilty to a Misdemeanor B charge of vicious animal. She was assessed $200 in fines and fees, ordered to erect a minimum of a six-foot-high fence to contain her dog by February 4, 2020 and have the dog complete training classes by September 30, 2020 or have the dog removed from the city.

In making her ruling, Judge Ashley Beall left the case open pending a final restitution amount for the victim, the cost of medical expenses associated with the bite. That phase of the case was settled this past week for the amount of $30,630.78.